Yes, computer performance will make load times and drops happen or go away depending on which end of the spectrum you are on. My old computer, I wouldn't load in until several seconds after battle start usually, when I upgraded that switched to still 25 seconds on timer usually if not before timer starts.

StuG life forever... all alone up north in Sacred Valley on my favorite sniping knob.... finally came up against an AT.... I got his commander but he was too close to put enough rounds into to stop. But it distracted him from Jon and Dave on the cap...

Oh yeah and for the first time yesterday I saw one of these in a match... talk about a Tog looking at home in the water.....

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"It does not take so many words to speak the truth"
Chief Joseph

If you haven't been paying attention, 2014 will not be the year of new tanks. Rather, it'll be the year of reworking the graphics, the HD client, and we will get 2-3 branches of vehicles and a few premiums -- the US premium TD included. Sounds like up-first is the German Assault Gun line (3rd TD line), another British line, and ???. The US 3rd medium line got postponed, the Chinese TD line has too many holes, the Japanese heavy line has too many holes, the French non-auto-loading lines are a maybe, but we'll see. On to more specific news:

7/42 News:
- new maps for team battles were not introduced, because there was a clash of two groups, the regular players wanted new maps, hardcore cybersport guys wanted to play only the old maps and since TB is meant for cybersports, WG decided not to put new maps in it
- apparently there will be no map choosing in team battles, the map will only be displayed before the battle starts [ I was really hoping for map choosing. I suppose if more people play team battles, we might get the map choice when we get the saturation we would need. But at the same time, after it assigns an OpFor team, the client could make them play 2 straight and have one pick map one round, the other pick the map the next. Of course this would suck if the client put you against Fulcrum... And then, four days later:]
- there will be a possibility to choose map in “clan battles” (??? probably meant Team battles) soon

Future News:
- the reason Wargaming is using paper sources in some cases instead of simply measuring the tanks in museums is the fact that even the museum vehicles are different from each other, for example two King Tigers measured both had different lower front plate (100mm and 120mm), while nominally, 100mm is correct
- the new (SS: as in next) nation that is planned is the EU tree, but it is not until 2015 at least
- US Christie tanks were postponed for far future
- SU-85i will be released soon as a regular premium vehicle
- Highway is being completely reworked by now
- Wargaming planned new US medium branch, but it was postponed, its top tier is the T95 Medium Tank, very similiar to the Soviet T-54 according to Veider
- US premium TD: there is one very paper vehicle (SS: as in, not very well developed) for tier 8, but that one has not even reached pre-production stage in real life (SS: odd)
- new tier 8 LT will come in 2014
- in near future, WG will buff tier 8 premium profitability, but not by much
- planned server-side replay will be one replay for all the battle members, eg. you’ll be able to see the entire battle from anyone’s POV
- apparently, HESH shells will be reworked by leaving them using the HE mechanism, but adding much higher chance to kill crew and destroy modules in addition to increased penetration value (SS: *FV215b 183 likes this post*)
- historical battles will appear in first half of 2014, WG is actively working on them
- there will be new bonuses for the owners of premium accounts, but it’s too soon to tell
- there will be 2 kilometer and even 4 kilometer maps
- various O-I models will be used as much as possible in the Japanese heavy line [That big, bad Japanese tier 10 that we were talking about months ago? Yup, it'll be a few tiers now, to reflect the two or three main drawing we have to go off of.]
- responsibility of clans for the behavior of their members won’t be implemented (SS: as in, automatically punishing the clan is a member misbehaves) [Looks like we wont have to boot Morgue for accidentally TKing a Forge guy]
- exclusive tanks will go primarily to clans. Random battle players will get exclusive tanks via missions similiar to the current IS-6 one (eg. heavy grind) [Fail Lowe, M60, T95E6 -- these may be available to us non-clan wars types for some serious grinding.]
- unification of two accounts won’t be implemented [Sorry, Jarod]
- historical battles: the battle of Prokhorovka and the battles around Lake Balaton are planned (in the first wave). There will be the respawn mechanism and there will be non-equal balance (for example one team has 7 tanks and the other has 30). At first, there will be the same maps as there are currently in game, but eventually there will be maps made exclusively for historical battles
- there will most likely be new premium tier 8 tanks

9.0/8.11 News:
- in 9.0 there will be no new tanks whatsoever, apart from possibly one premium tank (which one is secret for now)
- the new upcoming map in 9.0 will be Kharkov: it’s much like Ruinberg, a 70 percent city map, only with higher buildings
- next patch will not be 9.0, but 8.11 – it will contain UI features, such as disabling the chat
- T-44-85 will come in 8.11

Systems Clarifications:
- viewrange is a sphere, not a cylinder
- the average life span of a tank in WoT battle is cca 4 minutes, for a plane in WoWp it is cca 2 minutes, as for the classes – the longest lifespan belongs to arty, the shortest – hightier scouts
- roughly 75 million people around the world play World of Tanks, including women and elderly folks []

Buffs/Nerfs:
- M26E4 Super Pershing will be buffed, but not in the next patch
- probably the most unbalanced (SS: overnerfed) premium tank is the Super Pershing, it might be reworked
- Top tier TD’s will be rebalanced very soon, but how exactly is secret for now. It’s possible all top tier vehicles will be reviewed and rebalanced
- rear-turret VK4502B will be buffed
- there will be changes to the T49 tank destroyer